En Sens de Bois (Miller Harris)

Miller Harris has what they call Nouvelle Edition Collection. One of them is En Sens de Bois. According to the description on their web...

&quot;Deeply embedded with sensual references to Japanese temples, gardens and incense, these experiences inspired Lyn to translate the true essence of wood. The uniqueness of this fragrance is all about the careful balancing of the woods; cedar, santal, patchouli, vetiver, bois des landes, gently enhanced with mosses, cade, amber, iris, carrot and ambrette seed.....&quot;
( http://www.millerharris.com/products/en_sens_de_bois )

Just because their online shop is available only to those living in UK. I wrote and asked them how I could obtain a sample of this fragrance. They took their time, but they kindly emailed me back and told me they would send me a small sample of En Sens de Bois. Well, I finally got the sample today. Actually they sent me two sample vials!

Well, they sent me these samples for free. Therefore, probably, I should not say anything bad. But let me try to describe the scent as honestly as I can....

As the name says, it's woody. Cedarwood and pines are there. Some smokiness is there as well. The word &quot;smokey woods&quot; might remind you of some Serge Lutens fragrances, but this one is different. It smells like you're surrounded by rotten woods lying decaying and having mold growning on them on the wet ground after rain. And to make it worse, someone is burning some of these woods and you get the smokey ash in the air all over around you. Then it starts to rain again for some reasons and your clothes end up getting wet with these smelly ashes of dead woods. *

Probably, &quot;unisex woody&quot; is correct, but I think there are two kinds of unisex fragrances. One is something both men and women can enjoy, and the other neither can truly enjoy. En Sens de Bois may belong to the latter group. The word &quot;Japanese temples, gardens and incense&quot; sounded very attractive, but without any agarwood or obvious sandalwood notes, I find it very hard to relate this fragrance to my country (Japan).

Thank you, Miller Harris, But I just cannot get to like En Sens de Bois......

Re: En Sens de Bois (Miller Harris)

Just because their online shop is available only to those living in UK. I wrote and asked them how I could obtain a sample of this fragrance. They took their time, but they kindly emailed me back and told me they would send me a small sample of En Sens de Bois. Well,[ch12288]I finally got the sample today. Actually they sent me two sample vials!

I am glad to hear this. Since I have been smithened with all the M.H:s I´ve tried so far, I emailed them myself, asking how to obtain samples from La nouvelle ed. as a non UK citizen. It was quite a while ago and they haven´t answered me back. If they are just slow, and not ignoring my email, that´s OK then.

Re: En Sens de Bois (Miller Harris)

I ordered the sample box, and I'm wearing En Sens de Bois on one wrist, with Terre de Bois on the other. I like En Sens de Bois enormously, and may buy a bottle (although I'll admit a particular bias for incense-y smells).

I'm not getting any mould or rot from En Sens de Bois - it starts off woodsy and finishes with great gusts of fresh incense; it's almost sticky-tacky to smell, like resin dripping off a tree. I wonder whether the earthyness you got was from the iris and carrot? (I'm having trouble discerning the carrot, although I can get the iris.) The cade is very pronounced and doesn't seem to have vanished in the drydown. (I love cade.)

Interestingly, some of the woody smells in this are so well blended that it's hard to separate the cedar, sandalwood and patchouli - I'm just getting something a bit like one of those scented Chinese wooden boxes. It's rather dark and lovely (the oakmoss helps here), and I think I'll be buying a bottle.

Terre de Bois is much less to my taste. I usually love vetiver fragrances, and I love patchouli, but this is made very, very sweet with a great deal of juniper, which isn't a note I get on well with. It's not very woody, and the sweetness is a bit sickly - in this one I can smell some rot. Not a keeper.

Incidentally, I was really impressed with the service I got from Miller Harris when ordering their sample set - it arrived the next day in a beautiful box, with ribbons, tissue and all the trimmings. It'll take me a while to work through the lot, but so far I've been very pleased.

Re: En Sens de Bois (Miller Harris)

I became fascinated with the Miller Harris line awhile ago. Unfortunately, I have yet to find a fragrance of hers that really works for me and I've tried probably 7 or 8 of them at this point. Some of them start out promising enough only to turn harsh or strange or just kind of stinky. The descriptions all sound lovely, yet on my skin I can't help wondering what the perfumer was trying to create.